


Caught

by Anonymous



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Arthur Ketch Being an Asshole, BAMF Castiel (Supernatural), Castiel To The Rescue, Cursed Dean Winchester, Emotionally Hurt Dean Winchester, Everybody is okay in the end, Except Ketch But He Had It Coming, Gen, Hurt Castiel (Supernatural), Hurt Dean Winchester, Hurt Sam Winchester, Minor Character Death, Protective Castiel (Supernatural), Protective Dean Winchester, Protective Sam Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 14:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18592732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Cas knows Ketch has the Winchesters, and tracks them to a resurrected BMOL facility.But the brothers have been changed, and Cas needs to rescue them first before he can work at changing them back.





	Caught

When the humans came to get them, Dean fought. He wrapped his arms around whatever body part was dangled within his reach, and squeezed as hard as he could. 

One of the large creatures was stupid enough to put a finger close to his beak, and he bit down with such ferocity that he chomped straight through flesh and scored into the bone.

The human pulled away, screaming, and they were more cautious after that.

They came back with some kind of net on a pole, and even though Sam tugged him back to try and squeeze into the space between the weird rocks and the odd transparent walls, it made no difference.

They were caught, anyway, and then yanked out of the water.

++

Cas watched as Ketch got out of the SUV and shook hands with a stranger outside the door before following him inside the facility.

He knew Ketch couldn’t be trusted, but he’d never thought for a moment that there were enough of the British Men Of Letters left, or that Ketch was still in enough of a good standing with them, to be party to their resurgence.

And yet here he was, and here they were, and Sam and Dean’s phones were in that building.

The GPS had either been disabled or switched off, but not before Cas had tracked the signal there. Not to mention he’d seen someone moving the Impala, backing it clumsily into a garage and scraping one of the wing mirrors while doing so.

Cas almost pitied him; when he found the brothers, and freed them (he was sure now they were in dire need of rescue), he knew Dean would be severely pissed.

But before he could get to that, he had to find a way into the building first.

++

Sam thrashed and snapped as one of the humans dumped him roughly into another of the clear sided prisons, and hastily withdrew before Sam could do anything to him in return.

He hurriedly turned around, expecting to see Dean dropped in beside him, but the human carrying his brother was walking past and Sam gave a series of alarmed _clicks_ , demanding the human stop.

But the cruel creature paid him no attention, and Dean was put down on a flat surface, and held there.

Sam could only watch as more of the humans grabbed hold of Dean’s limbs, and stretched them out, and used something to pin them down.

Dean jerked and snapped but it did no good.

No good at all.

++

Cas took out three of the Brits between the entrance to the building and the stairs that led down into the facility proper.

There were elevators, but he didn’t know the layout of the place, and didn’t want to risk them somehow sealing him in one and delaying him reaching the brothers.

The markings he’d put on the brothers years before might have faded (and without his wings he couldn’t have used them as a method of tracking his humans down anyway), but within a certain proximity, he could still reach out with his Grace to locate them.

Like now. He could feel they were maybe one or two levels down, and so Cas kept going.

He was surprised Ketch hadn’t warded the building against him, but then the human didn’t think they knew of his treachery.

Well, they did now, and once Cas had his humans back and safe, he’d do something about it.

++

They used something sticky to pin his limbs down, and Dean raged at them.

If he got loose, he’d do more than bite through a finger.

But between whatever they pinned him with, and the two men who kept hold of him, he couldn’t do a thing except glare and snap and listen to Sam’s distressed sounds from where he was trapped.

And then something thin and sharp pieced his skin and Dean make a squeal so high pitched the humans couldn’t hear it, but he knew his brother could.

He tried not to, but it _hurt_.

Sam started cracking his limbs against the strange prison they’d put him in, and Dean could hear how angry he was.

One of the humans removed the thing that had hurt him, and that part hurt too, and then he walked away.

Another one started walking around him, holding something up at him. It flashed now and again, and he tried to twist away from that brilliant light, but it didn’t matter.

He wasn’t going anywhere.

++

There was some kind of a lab up ahead; part of the wall was taken up by a long rectangular window, right next to a set of frosted glass doors.

None of the people inside, all wearing lab coats, noticed Cas approaching, and he’d taken care of anyone else on the way who might have raised the alarm.

As he got closer, he could feel his connection with the brothers grow stronger so they were definitely in that room.

But, when Cas was near enough to look through the window, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

There was no mistaking the Winchesters’ souls; Cas knew them as well as he knew the brothers’ physical forms, and those…. the octopi, one in the tank, and one on the table…

That was Sam and Dean.

And Dean…

Cas felt an icy fury overtake him as he realised both brothers were scared, but Dean was also in pain, and he could see why.

When he approached the doors, they didn’t open, so Cas raised his hand, and shattered the glass, crushed the metal, and swept aside the battered frame that was left.

The men and women inside the room spun around and Cas guessed they were scientists, not soldiers, because they looked terrified at the raging angel in their midst.

Cas didn’t see Ketch anywhere, not even skulking behind the others, and he hadn’t encountered him so far.

It was possible he’d left, while Cas was tracking the brothers through the corridors, or that he might be elsewhere in the facility.

Much as Cas wanted to crush him underfoot, taking care of the human would have to wait.

He had two more important people to care for now, in a much different way.

++

Sam watched as the strange human stepped into the room, unable to look away.

There was something about him. He seemed to _glow_ and Sam wouldn’t deny himself the thrill of watching the creature take on the other humans who’d snatched him and Dean and were now torturing his brother.

It wasn’t a long fight; the human waved his hand and the nearest people were thrown back, and fell, and then two of the men rushed him.

That was a dumb idea, and then the newcomer was the only one left standing.

But when he moved towards Dean, Sam slapped his limbs furiously against the strange barrier in warning.

The human glanced over at him, and said something, before he reached out to touch Dean.

Sam clicked at him, pleading, but the human didn’t hurt Dean. He was...gentle, trying to calm him, but Dean was enraged and kept trying to wriggle free and grab at the human or snap at him.

His movements were slowing, though; he’d been out of the water for too long, and Sam started to panic.

But the human…. He didn’t seem angered or put off by Dean’s resistance. He freed him and carefully picked him up, supporting him when he flopped, and came over to the prison.

And then he carefully lowered Dean into the tank and Sam jetted to his brother.

The water revived Dean almost instantly, and Sam fussed over him until Dean irritably swatted him away.

Whatever those other humans had done to Dean, there was no sign of it now.

They both peered out at the strange human. He was looking back at them, his mouth moving, but then he looked unhappy and straightened up.

Sam wondered what he was going to do now. How he and Dean would survive since the humans who’d brought them here weren’t moving. He was hungry, and since Dean was always hungry way before him he figured his brother needed food too.

They could die here.

But then the strange human reached out, as if to wrap his arms around them.

Sam cringed away; Dean flailed his tentacles in warning, shooting black streaks of ink into the water.

Sam wished he hadn’t done, because now they couldn’t see.

But the human didn’t touch them. And then the water around them moved, and Sam and Dean moved a little with it.

What was going on?

++

The fact that the brothers didn’t recognise him frightened Cas. Transformation spells weren’t rare but the victim always retained their sense of identity. 

Given their behaviour in the tank, Cas was positive they knew they were brothers, but he was just as sure they had forgotten they were human. 

He had to get them to safety, fast, and then help them.

The gap between the front and back seats of the Impala wasn’t wide enough to hold the tank Sam and Dean were imprisoned in, so Cas had to settle for putting it on the back seat, and using the seat belts to hold it in place, and other items from the trunk to try and further secure it.

It wasn’t ideal, but he had no other options.

He could, he was sure, change the brothers back. There were trace elements of a spell around them, and Cas knew he could simply follow it back, as it were, undoing the effects.

Whether Ketch had spelled the brothers, or they’d been exposed to a cursed object, Cas wasn’t sure, but he’d find out once the brothers were human again.

He just couldn’t do it here, not when Ketch might be lurking somewhere close by.

And, as if he’d tempted fate just by thinking it, a gunshot cracked through the air, and the Impala’s front windscreen was suddenly spider cracked around a bullet hole right in front of Cas.

He felt blood trickle down his neck, and reached up to see the bullet had nicked his ear.

The tank.

Cas twisted around, terrified in case the tank had shattered, but the bullet had hit the back seat just above it.

“I can’t let you leave, angel. Not with our test subjects. In fact, I think we have something here that might look good on you as well. Get out of the car.”

Cas knew if Ketch took another shot, they might not be so lucky.

And Ketch wanted him to get out of the car.

Cas was happy to oblige.

++

They were moving again. Dean clicked angrily as the water around them sloshed about, not violently enough to slap them against the walls of whatever was holding the water in around them, but it was still unsettling.

He figured that giant was taking them somewhere, but since he’d inked the water they couldn’t see out to find out what was going on.

Sam was still unhappy with him over that, but it wasn’t his fault that they were trapped, and couldn’t get away, and the ink just (like them) had nowhere to go.

The weird human had rescued them from those other humans so maybe it’d be okay.

Maybe he was going to take them back to the _water_ water, and let them go. If that was his plan, Dean would forgive them being plopped back and forth like was happening now.

But if he had other plans...for him, or for Sam...

Dean wasn’t tied down anymore, and that human would find out what a bad idea it was to piss him off.

++

Cas pulled in a few miles away from the facility. He didn’t want to risk being too close to the place where the brothers had been kept, but he also wasn’t sure if it was safe to keep them in that water for much longer.

Well, Ketch was taken care of, and no one else had come to challenge him or stop him leaving, so Cas figured here was good enough.

It was quiet, and no other cars passed him, so he got out and lifted the tank from the back seat.

There was an old blanket in the trunk, and Cas spread it on the ground, and reached into the water, feeling around for the brothers.

He found Dean first. Or, rather, Dean found him, and Cas rolled his eyes when he felt Dean trying to gnaw on his fingers.

“Stop that,” he said, but wasn’t surprised when Dean refused to listen. He wriggled furiously as Cas picked him up, and tried to grab at the tank with his limbs.

Cas carefully, but firmly, popped him free and then tried to put him down on the blanket.

Dean immediately wrapped his arms around Cas’s wrists, hanging on like his life depended on it.

“Oh, now you _don’t_ want me to let go,” the angel said, not unkindly, and wondered why the sheer obstinacy of the hunter still surprised him after all this time.

Getting Dean off of him took some effort, but he finally managed to grab his limbs with one hand, support his head with the other, and settle him on the blanket.

Dean snapped furiously at him, and Cas could just imagine what was going through his head.

He went back to the tank, and reached in for Sam, who was not quite as agitated as Dean, but still resisted until he seemed to realise Cas was going to put him next to his brother.

They were almost instantly glued to each other’s sides, checking the other was okay, and then Cas was subject to two glares.

He grabbed their duffels from the trunk, quickly laid out some clothing and a couple of towels, and then stepped closer to the blanket.

Dean slapped a limb down in warning, and seemed offended that the soft fabric of the blanket somewhat ruined the effect.

“Hold on,” Cas said, and then he reached out his hand, and used his Grace to untangle the web of magic surrounding his humans.

There was a sudden flash of light and where they had been two octopi, Cas was faced with, instead, two naked humans.

Who seemed to suddenly realised they were standing there, naked, and Cas fought back a smile as Dean immediately started to curse.

++

_Fucking Ketch_ , Dean thought, as he slumped down on his bed, body aching for no reason he could figure.

Well, Cas had pointed out that they’d both been under the effects of a powerful spell, and spent time as another species as well as being subject to the ‘care’ of the Letters.

But, still…. He was tired, and it seemed more that than anything else.

He’d started to trust Ketch. Crazy, he knew it. But after that other world, after how Ketch had helped them….

_Once a viper_.

And because he had been dumb enough to think Ketch had changed, he and Sam had nearly paid for it.

And his fucking _car_!

Yeah, it was just as well Cas had taken care of the bastard.

But keeping his family safe was his job.

He and Sam should never have been in that position.

And because they were in that position, Cas had been forced to walk straight into their little R&D nightmare, into the grasp of people who would just have loved to take him apart feather by feather.

He hated Ketch, then, but he hated himself more.

There was a knock at the door, and he looked up to find Sam and Cas standing there.

“You two okay?”

Sam rolled his eyes, but Cas nodded.

“You’re not,” the angel said.

Dean knew better than to try and waive off the angel’s concern.

If it were either Sam, or Cas, he could probably avoid, but both of them there together, a formidable united front of earnest-moose-angel-feelings, was more than he had reserves to shoo away.

“Just spent hours with eight legs and suckers and a …. a _beak_. And that fucker busted up my car.”

“Which you’re gonna fix,” Sam said. “And we’re alive. We’re human again, we’re home, all three of us, and we’re safe.”

Yeah. Despite him trusting that piece of shit.

Cas shook his head. “Dean. It’s in your nature to see the good in people, where you can. This is on Ketch, not you.”

“I thought he’d changed as well,” Sam said. “And there was no way to know the Letters were back.”

Some of them, anyway. Ketch had let slip enough to reveal that this was a minor operation, probably them putting a toe back in the water.

Hopefully, with Ketch dead, and their little science-magic freak show shut down, they’d whip that toe right back out and stay on the other side of the pond.

But if not…

Sam seemed to know what he was thinking.

“We handled them once. We can handle them again.”

Cas nodded.

Fuck, Dean was glad those two were his family, and that he still had them safe and close.

“Yeah,” he said. Because if any of those Brits came sniffing around his brother and his angel ever again, Dean would make sure this time, when they sent them packing, that he finished the job.

Even if he had to take a flight to the U.K to do it.

**Author's Note:**

> The internet jury seems to be out on whether or not octopi make noises (and if they do, they’re outwith the range of human hearing), so I opted for _they do_ here.


End file.
